Rise of Moon
The darkness moved like a shroud over the town, snuffing out the lights, obscuring the way, consuming anypony unfortunate enough to be caught in it. The screams were hideous, but very brief. In the center of it all, walking just ahead of the darkness, was Councillor Barley Corn, a wicked smirk on his face.
The Doctor had made a good point, in the end, even if it wasn’t the one they were trying to impress. Barley could not let anypony escape the darkness. Every citizen of this town had offended him at some point— not being quick enough to obey orders, lazing about, laughing at him behind his back, they wouldn’t be laughing long now, would they? Oh, no, not long at all.
He glared at the apparently smiling face of a skull, and smashed it to bits with a single kick. He resumed a sedate pace. There was no need to rush good work, after all.
***
The Doctor and his companions had rounded up every pony that they could in the center of town. They had all been relieved to see Chancellor Puddinghead among the survivors. “Bring your torches, candles, open flames if you’ve nothing else,” the Doctor ordered. “We need to turn this night into day if we’re to survive it!”
The remaining villagers stood in stark horror at the oncoming wall of— well— darkness wasn’t quite the word for it. Darkness was merely the absence of light. Darkness could be a comfort, a warm blanket. This seemed to absorb the light, blotting out the stars themselves, destroying light, heat, love, everything that entered it. The Doctor looked around nervously, but then felt a tug at their leg. Blinking in surprise, he looked down to see a little grey colt, his eyes wide and fearful. “‘Ast thou seen me mummy?” he asked, tears brimming at the corners of his eyes.
The Doctor paused. The gears in their head began to turn double time. They leaned down to look the colt in the eyes. “No, I’m afraid I haven’t,” they admitted. “Why don’t you ask my friends Luna and Celestia to help? I’m sure they’d be happy to look for her.”
Luna looked up at the sound of her name. “What?” she asked, confused.
“This foal is looking for his mother,” the Doctor said quietly. “She’s… gone missing.”
The unspoken assumption was as dark and heavy as the encroaching wall of death. Luna took in a deep breath and choked a small sob of horror. Just for a fraction of a second, the whites of her eyes were luminous. The Doctor looked on and nodded grimly. “Keep an eye on him,” they said. “I need to go speak with the councilor…”
***
As Barley Corn approached the well-lit town square, it was all he could do not to laugh. “Dost thou really think that will slow us down? Think thee it shall stop us? No, Doctor. Ye may as well give up now.”
The Doctor stared at him stoically. “You know, it's funny," they said calmly. "I never told you my name."
“...Eh?” Barley had not expected that.
“My name. It’s not Professor Query, though I told everypony in town that. So, how do you know to call me the Doctor?”
“I— eh— Professor, Doctor, no diff’rence—”
“I shall tell you how you knew,” the Doctor interrupted. “You know because that thing told you. You know because it’s gotten into your mind, become as much a part of you as you are, perhaps more so. It’s taken you over, Barley. Taken all your worst qualities, your anger, your hatred, your scheming, and amplified them one-hundredfold, all at the cost of— well. Everything else. Memories, personality, everything that makes you you.”
He scowled. "Don't be daft."
"Daft? I'm not the one making deals with demons. You, on the other hoof... well, I'm afraid that you made your penultimate mistake when you let the darkness in. It's consuming you from the inside, your heart, your mind, your very soul."
"Pah!"
The Doctor looked at him sadly. "Look at your cutie mark."
"Why should I?"
"Look at it."
Barley glanced back. He froze, transfixed. Where once the symbol of a sickle and a stalk of barley had adorned his flanks, all that remained was a patch of black, as though he'd sat in tar."
“No— no, it ain’t so— it cannae be!”
“Can't it? Tell me, Barley, what was your mother’s name? Your first kiss, when was it? What house did you live in as a child? When’s your birthday?”
“I— I—” the councilor sputtered, stricken. “I remember not. I don’t— “
Suddenly, his face twisted hideously, contorting into an expression beyond fear, beyond rage, the face of a pony drowning on dry land. And then it relaxed into an expression of cold, calculating malice. “Ah. I did hope thou would mention that not. Now I’ve had to do away with him as well.”
“You would have done so anyway,” the Doctor replied.
“True,” the thing in the councilor’s body agreed. “But I had been hoping to string him along a little while longer, you see. It’s much easier to exist in physical form with a template to follow.”
“Hm. You know, you seem to have the advantage of me. You know that I am the Doctor, but I don’t know what to call you.”
“Thou may address me as…” the councilor’s mouth flickered up for a moment, something it had never done in life. “The Nightmare.”
The Doctor nodded in resignation, as though some theory had, regrettably, been confirmed. “And you want— no, let me guess, everlasting darkness? An eternal playground for your reign of terror? Phrases ending in “will last forever”?”
“More or less,” it replied.
“I see. I hope you realize that I am going to have to stop you?”
“Thou may well try,” it said with a sneer.
"Oh, I'll do more than that," the Doctor promised. "You aren't the first monster I've faced, Nightmare, and you certainly won't be the last. I know you better than you think. I know what you want, what you're willing to do, what you fear."
"Curious. I might say the same to you." Screams rang out behind the Doctor, but they couldn't look away from the magnetic gaze of the Nightmare. "Daleks and Cybermen, Vampires, Racnoss, Yssgaroth, oh my. Even your own people. But deeper than that, the most fundamental fear of all, is--"
The Doctor tore their gaze away with a wild, animalistic scream and spun around, only to see that the fires in the square were beginning to go out, one by one. “NO! That should have bought more time!”
As they raced back toward the square, they were already well aware that they were too late to do anything more than hope. It was all in Luna's hooves, now.
***
Luna shrunk back from the oncoming darkness. She could see it as it absorbed ponies into it, mummifying them at a touch and dissolving the flesh from their bones as it absorbed them. A wave of resignation fell over her. Perhaps, after all this, it wouldn’t be so bad simply to succumb. She was in pain, and felt so terribly tired. Nopony here cared for her, save Celestia. Nopony outside the village would notice if she were to die. Suddenly, she felt a presence at her side. Looking down, she saw the colt that the Doctor had left in her care. “Miss Luna?” he looked terrified. “Is— is that— where’s my mummy?”
She couldn't answer. She choked on her words, which swirled like thick, bubbling tar in her throat. She looked around. Smart Cookie was picking up torches and hurling them at the darkness, only to see them extinguished as soon as they hit it. Celestia was desperately trying to manufacture a shield spell over a few villagers. Chancellor Puddinghead was talking to a group of foals. Luna watched them smile at the old stallion and put their hooves over their eyes, counting loudly. She saw him turn away, his face ashen.
She looked down. The foal was still looking up at her, past her. She looked up as well. The moon looked back down at her.
A surge of silver washed over her vision, lighting up the world. The low, aching burble of panic in her stomach turned into daggers that twisted at her organs. Perhaps she didn't matter. Perhaps the child didn't, either, or his mother. But how dare that shade destroy them? How dare that fiend steal away this foal’s mother? How dare it scare the children? How dare it destroy and desecrate the beauty of darkness?” It was only when she saw ponies staring at her that she realized that she had shouted her thoughts aloud. She also realized that she didn’t really care. She stormed forward. “Luna! What are ye doing?” her sister cried.
Luna didn’t listen. All that she could hear was the pumping of the blood in her veins, the ringing in her ears. Her limbs were shaking, not with fear or pain or cold, but with raw power, power that could shift the heavens themselves. Celestia moved to run after her, as quickly as she could on injured legs, but was stopped by the Doctor. “Let me go!” she cried, moving to punch the pegasus in the face..
“Look!” the Doctor whispered, pointing. Celestia stared along their line of sight, and her mouth fell open. Luna was surrounded by a corona of silver-blue light, bright as the stars and moon. No, surrounded wasn’t the word— she exuded it, her form flickering and fading into the light. The heavens themselves seemed to pale against her blinding brilliance. “Thou… shalt… not!” she roared, burning with fury. “Thou shalt trouble this populace no longer! I will be their protector on this night, and I cast thee out!”
The darkness flickered back, wounded. Luna continued forward, her teeth bared into a snarl. The nightmare winced and flinched back where the tendrils of light slashed it, burning away, and still she walked forward. Celestia looked at the Doctor, anger giving way to confusion which in turn gave way to something like comprehension. She pushed away from them, slowly following after her younger sister. She too began to glow with a soft, golden light, like the morning sky, or the hearth of a family home. The lights mingled and melded, glowing like an aurora. Unable to stand against it, the monster dissolved back into mere shadows, shrieking as it dissolved into nothing. There was no shadow for it to escape to, nowhere for it to take refuge. The stars twinkled overhead.
The Doctor smiled wanly. “I told you I knew what you were afraid of,” they murmured. “In the end, that's what every nightmare fears. Love. Light. The proof that the morning will come again.”
***
“And that is the story of how our two guests got their cutie marks,” the Doctor concluded. “The rest, as they say, is history. It didn't take much to convince Luna to travel with me, and of course that brought Celestia along as well. It was… tense for a bit, but as you can see, all’s well now.”
“All except for the time you made me be the monster bait,” Luna said drily.
“Hey, you caused the paradox, you have to help fix it,” the Doctor replied, mock scolding the alicorn.
Celestia laughed aloud. “I don’t remember you being so uptight when I was out baiting the jewel thieves on Bridleway, Lulu…”
The princess of the night merely sniffed and put her nose in the air.
“Wow, that’s some story,” Ditzy marvelled. “But, what happened afterwards?”
“Afterwards?” the Doctor mused. “Well. Nothing too exciting. You already know that the Chancellor and Smart Cookie had their own roles to play in Equestrian history. So did the Chancellor’s chief adviser, though we didn’t meet him that adventure. He’s a story for another day, I think.”
“What about the shadow-thing? How did you actually stop it?” Dinky asked. “I mean— you two were just kids, right? Where’d you get that kind of power?”
“Short answer, I weakened it by cutting its connection through Barley's mind, so it was using most of its power to just stay on the mortal plane. Even at that age, a pair of alicorns were more than strong enough to banish it. When they're powered up properly, there's not much that they can't burn away. It's just a matter of knowing how best to light the fire. Long answer? That’s another long story,” the Doctor said. “One that’ll keep for another evening. As for the Nightmare itself… well, it cropped up again. But that's a story you know well already.”
The Doctor and Celestia turned to look at Luna, who coughed and blushed slightly. “Wait.” said Dinky, “You turned into Nightmare Moon because you got possessed by that… whatever-it-was?”
“We just call it the Nightmare,” Celestia corrected. “And, yes, it was responsible for my sister’s corruption, as well as many others throughout history. Most did not survive.”
There was a long silence. Then Dinky said, in a small voice, “But… it’s gone now, right?”
“Oh, well, probably,” the Doctor replied, slipping back out of his serious voice. “I mean, Elements of Harmony… they don’t mess around, do they?”
“You know,” Celestia interjected, “I don’t believe we ever ate that lovely cake you were going to serve us that day. I suppose it’s gone now. What a pity.”
The Doctor paused, then gave her a wide grin. “Benefits of being a Time Lord? Food doesn’t have to go bad. The cake is still in the TARDIS, fresh as the day it was the day you first saw it.”
Celestia paused, her coffee halfway to her lips. Slowly, she turned to look at the Doctor, her eyes wide and questioning. “Really?”
At his nod, she let out a whoop and ran from the room, chanting as she went. “Cake, cake, cake, cake, cake, cake, cake…”
The Doctor laughed. “Ah, same old Celly. You lot go on ahead, I’ll tidy up in here before I come out.”
“I’ll help,” Luna said.
“Oh, no, we couldn’t possibly—” Ditzy began.
“We shall help,” Luna repeated, in a voice that hinted at a far more royal tone ready to be used once more.
Ditzy nodded slowly, not breaking eye contact with the princess. “...Right. Okay,” she said, trotting out of the room. “Come on, Dinky,”
Luna turned and levitated several teacups in her aura. If one looked closely at the magical lights, it might be possible to see in them reflections of alien moons and distant stars. “So,” she said, a faint smile on her face, “You’ve settled down at last. Shocking, really, when one thinks of all the proposals you refused. It was Princess Platinum, wasn’t it, who tried to have you executed for denying her? Which incarnation was that?”
“... Some future one, apparently.”
Luna paused, then went slightly pink. “Oops,” she said, her ears flattening against her head.
The Doctor laughed. “More things change, the more they stay the same, eh?” he sighed. “I remember the time when you accidentally told Commander Hurricane the outcome of a battle that wouldn’t happen until next week!”
The two old friends shared a chuckle at that. Then the Doctor frowned, seeing something in Luna’s expression. “What’s wrong?” he asked, looking concerned.
Luna blinked in surprise. “Wrong? Why should anything be wrong? I’m just happy to see you, old friend.”
“Don’t try to lie, Luna,” he sighed, setting down their stack of plates. “Just because I’m wearing a different face doesn’t mean I don’t remember every one of your tells.”
The alicorn huffed and stared into space for a long moment, carefully considering what she was about to say. “Do you believe it?” she asked, a tremor in her voice, “Truly?”
The Doctor frowned, perplexed. “Believe… what?”
“That the Nightmare has really been destroyed by the Elements. They were never meant to destroy. That was rather the point.”
The Doctor hesitated, but then shook his head. “I think when it was cast out of you, that would have destroyed it, or at least banished it for a time, regardless of the intentions behind the elements when they were wielded. With nowhere else to go, it would have just… dissolved. It needs something to cast a shadow, something to possess. Without that, it’s just an unpleasant piece of shade. It'll be a long chalk before we have to face it again.”
Luna stared into their eyes for a long moment, studying their depths closely. At length, she nodded, and, picking up the tableware in her magic once more, said merely, “I hope you are right, Doctor. For all of our sakes, I hope you are right…”
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Hee! Point. I couldn’t quite remember the exchange, so I looked it up...
The Doctor: I don't suppose you've completely ignored my instructions and secretly prepared any Nitro-9, have you?
Ace: What if I had?
The Doctor: And naturally, you wouldn't do anything so insanely dangerous as to carry it around with you, would you?
Ace: Of course not. I'm a good girl and do what I'm told.
The Doctor: Excellent. Blow up that vehicle.
Good times.
9424532
Haven't we all?
9424540
I felt that I couldn't realistically use 'they' for scenes where neither the POV of the Doctor nor anyone they've yet told their pronouns to is being used. I thought it might help to differentiate who the focus of the scene was on, but I'm concerned that it might just be flat-out confusing.
This incarnation of the Doctor doesn't particularly mind being referred to as 'he', or any other pronoun; Gallifreyan gender is so wildly different from any systems on Earth that none of their incarnations are particularly bothered about it.
9424546
Thank you so much! And I'm glad you're feeling better now.
YOU... SHALL... NOT... PASS!
Magnificent stuff. The sisters' early years always make for quality story fodder. Thank you for another great read. And so the binge-read continues.
9911193
I'm glad you're enjoying it!
This was a rather well done story in the style of the classic Who episodes from the 80s. Well done!
I'm reading the stories in order so if it's in a future story already, sorry, but, I'm willing to bet that the foreshadowing of the nightmare's return will be the doctor targeted since he has so much sorrow in him. To reference the 50th year anniversary episode, he's the man who regrets, and his next regen is the man who forgets(buries the hurt deep within himself). Even after that, 12 was so hurt he didn't want to regen and while it's not too easy to see in 13 she can sometimes show how hurt she is, usually when she's angry. It wouldn't be easy for the nightmare to get him with how good he is, but so was Luna so it's not clear to me whether he would get possessed or not. I'm not sure how many years of sorrow and torture Luna went through, but the doctor has gone through 906 years+ whatever brief time travel he does nowadays(in Equestria).
Man, would be awesome to see more of the adventures with the Doctor and the Princesses.